Alright, so how long do you think it will take for public lynchings to come back in style?
You’re currently reading “Shoot The Gangster and Get Your Free RingTone,” an entry on #{Boontdusties.com}
It is so strange. This banal noveltelization of violent subcultures for the most banal way one could ever spend $1.99 — On ringtones and other forms of vaporware for our exploding collections of gadgets. It’s as if society is being ever so gradually prodded into being no different than what it is it despises. We are being herded into a fully automated choose you’re own adventure book. How many times did you read those things and think to yourself that between the choices you were given you would have chosen a different path. CYOA books caused me to want to write for myself more than anything else. But that was then and this is now.
It occurs to me that those people who were turned away from the Gretna bridge in New Orleans were literally living, not in a CYOA book, but within the code of a cutting edge psycho-technological video game where the rules allow for fucking around and senseless slaughter and cruelty. But as in the library of Grand Theft Auto titles, sure, you can fuck around all you want, but there is no way to outrun the gov’t when it comes for you.
I was listening to a “This American Life” episode and some of the people trying to escape and avoid being shot during the dusk to dawn, martial law curfew, found a bus they were able to break into and sleep for awhile.
Immediately into my head, popped GTA Vice City. I’m thinkin’, why not get on that bus, hotwire it and get a running start and just drive the fuck over whoever blocked your way from getting across that bridge? A friend of mine has a PS2 and last night I asked to play the game, just for old time’s sake. And I realized what it’s all about: We’re being conditioned to do exactly that everyday of our lives — turn on the console and play. They’re funneling us into a future where sure, we’ve got all kinds of freedoms and wiggle room, but when you see something that is destroying the fabric of not just society, but the ability to emote in mutually beneficial ways, you then become an enemy of the state.
The Empire is inviting us to turn on that console and play. Right now, what we’re doing is, we’ve bought the game, went out to eat and read the book with all the gorgeous screenshots. When we get home they want us to plop it in and play with them. Because they know, to play with them is to be destroyed. Like in GTA, when you get your fifth or sixth star or whatever it is, that means the military has been tapped to take you out. There is no escaping at that point. If you have the weapons cheat codes then you can have a temporary amount of fun blowing their helicopters and tanks skyhigh with your rocket launcher. But then you get bored. Because you have the cheat code. And with a PS2, you can always turn it off.
But this shit. It just reeks of conditioning. Gangstaz aren’t suddenly going to “wake up” and say “hey, we’re being exploited here!”. Exploitation is the name of the game period, in America. This has the looks of going on and on and on. New game systems, ever better ways to get one’s jollies that for the most part only manifest out of some sort of a ten mile wide and inch deep desire to see other people suffer. When they suffer and die, that is it. There’s no more “normal” to return to after one has taken a life. But that’s where we’re at as a cravenly marketed to global community. Our emotions spread far and wide, while our cores have been hollowed out and filled in with empire cement.
Damn, JK, that was one hell of a comment. “our cores have been hollowed out and filled in with empire cement.” That’s the best metaphor I’ve heard in a long time.
That’s right, it’s spelled “boonTdusties.”
Hey guy, I’ll be sure to get you linked to the LFI page now that I’ve fuckin’ found you. Hope all is well in the world to conspiracy theory (by the looks of things, it is). Lots of Losers Fight It shows, recently. Just played with the Queers, actually. New album is in the works. Let me know if you still want any Surprise Guests mp3s. My best to you and yours.
T. Stylez
Yeah, seriously JK - keep all your “deep insights” for your own stinkin’ blog.
[...] ays
Empire24 Sep 2005 04:06 pm
Empire Cement
Check out this great comment by JK over at Garrett’s blog. “We are being herded into a fully automated [...]
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